Peach Bowl loss shows Penn State has plenty of work to do to join college football’s elite

ATLANTA — Penn State punted. Mississippi didn’t.

No, the end result of Saturday’s Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium — Ole Miss 38, Penn State 25 — probably was not directly impacted by either decision in the end, but the two moments in the third quarter were telling for these Nittany Lions and where they stand.

They were here, in this non-playoff matchup, because of a lack of offensive firepower and imagination against the Big Ten’s top teams, Michigan and Ohio State. And the absence of offensive innovation showed itself when James Franklin elected to punt on a fourth-and-1 situation from Penn State’s 34-yard line trailing by six early in the third quarter. He gave the ball back to a Rebels offense that was gashing an undermanned and overmatched defense, one that entered as the top unit in the nation. Never mind the fact that Penn State was averaging 6 yards per carry at the time.

Ole Miss marched right down the field and put the game away, the 31-17 lead more than enough against a Penn State offense that didn’t complete a pass to a wide receiver until the fourth quarter.

Later in that third quarter, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was presented with a similar scenario. The Rebels faced fourth-and-1 at their own 36-yard line. It would’ve been easy to punt away to an inept Penn State offensive attack and live to fight another day. Instead, Kiffin’s team ran a direct snap to a defensive tackle for a first down.

“Felt like we needed to obviously punt the ball, pin them deep and make them go the length of the field,” Franklin said. “We had not been moving the ball the way we needed to offensively. They had been moving the ball, so I felt like I needed to give our defense the best chance.

“Obviously that was a big story in the game, them going for it on fourth down and having success.”

It was that kind of day for the Nittany Lions. The Rebels ran all over them with their up-tempo offense.

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Penn State, playing without star tackle Olu Fashanu, who sat out while preparing for the NFL draft, ran the ball effectively at times but the passing game, with Drew Allar at quarterback, proved to be a step behind what was a relatively average Ole Miss defense.

The disaster showing leaves Penn State heading into another offseason with plenty of work to do after the season ended well short of the sport’s ultimate prize and the program’s expectations. Again.

Franklin pointed to the changes at both offensive and defensive coordinator, and the players who weren’t in the lineup, as ultimate reasons for Penn State’s defeat.

“Too many moving parts, with the staff and with the players, to have the type of success that we wanted to have,” he said.

To be clear, this was a chance for Penn State to win its third New Year’s Six bowl game since 2019. Franklin has had a run of success that most programs would do anything for. But Franklin is 0-6 against Ohio State and Michigan over the last three seasons, and the two losses to those teams this year didn’t leave Penn State fans thinking they were any closer to getting over the hump. Saturday couldn’t have inspired any confidence, either.

Perhaps an expanded playoff format, starting next season, provides hope, but finding silver linings on a day like Saturday is a fool’s errand.

“When you’re in a place like Penn State, you embrace the expectations,” Franklin said Friday. “That’s why you came here. That’s for our players, and that’s for the coaches, and that’s for myself. We embrace the high expectations. But I do also know that we take a lot of pride in the consistency and how we’ve been able to play over the majority of our time at Penn State.

“I think sometimes people take that for granted and don’t realize how challenging that is in today’s college football. For us, it’s being appreciative and recognizing what we have done well, but then also taking a deep dive and being very, very transparent and saying where do we need to grow? How do we get better? And how do we attack those things?”

There are plenty of things to attack.

To be fair, Fashanu wasn’t the only star power missing in action for Penn State. Defensive end Chop Robinson, a projected first-round pick, and cornerback Kalen King, who could go late in the first round, didn’t play. Neither did cornerback Johnny Dixon, who didn’t make the trip to Atlanta.

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OK, there were a few silver linings. The Nittany Lions’ running backs, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, will be back. Allar is only finishing his first full season of college football. Abdul Carter, the linebacker from Philadelphia, looks like he’ll be one of the top linebackers in the country next season. There’s hope that new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki could help unlock an offense that hasn’t been able to perform against the sport’s elite.

That looked far away, however, on Saturday. Penn State’s lack of depth and talent at wide receiver was glaring. And at one point in the fourth quarter, with Penn State trailing by 14, backup quarterback Beau Pribula came in for a trick play. He tried to pass the ball backward to Allar, but it sailed over the starter’s head for a 12-yard loss. The drive ended with a blocked field goal attempt.

There are frustrated Penn State fans. One of them wanted to wait outside of the press conference room to say something to Franklin before the coach’s session, but his wife pulled him away. Another heckled the coach as he walked into the locker room.

Earlier, during the game, an Allar deep ball hung in the air for a long time after he chucked it while getting hit. It fell into the hands of a waiting Ole Miss defender for an interception.

ESPN cameras caught defensive lineman Coziah Izzard’s mom in the crowd. It was easy to read her lips. “What the [expletive] was that?” she mouthed.

There were plenty of those to go around Saturday.

On another big stage, in another big game, Penn State punted.